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Guest opinion: RTD, Just eight more miles, please!

By Jeff Ilseman

Posted:
03/25/2012 01:00:00 AM MDT

On March 15 I attended the Regional Transportation District meeting in Longmont with the Chairman of the RTD Board of Directors and a representative of the RTD staff. After listening to RTD's latest staff recommendation to bring rail to Church Ranch station in Westminster in the 2020 to 2022 timeframe, and after listening, for an hour and a half, to Longmont residents express more disappointment with RTD, I presented the following one page unsolicited proposal:

"I propose that RTD extend the rail plan eight more miles, bringing rail into Boulder County. The 1st station within Boulder County under the original plan is downtown Louisville.

The Louisville Station is uniquely located such that it can be easily served by a Boulder County Bus Rapid Transit feeder system from Longmont, from the Boulder stations, and from the Lafayette Park & Ride as well as other Park & Rides.

Advantages to a rail station inside of Boulder County fed by a BRT system:

1. No RTD bus would have use US 36 in order to transport people to Denver.

2. No RTD bus would have to use I-25 in order to transport people to Denver.

3. On snow days, people who work in Denver would get to work on time!

4. A Boulder County BRT feeder system should be cheaper than the bus system currently transporting people from Boulder County to Denver.

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5. In anticipation of the completion of rail to Longmont, the $17 million Longmont train station, could, in the interim, serve as an example of how a BRT station and system should operate, like a train station and system; with indoor "off bus" ticketing and indoor loading; with passengers walking directly onto buses (without steps); with passengers walking directly off buses onto the train platform; and anything else that would create a train-like transit experience.

6. If the Longmont station is properly built and operated then it would serve as an appealing connection point for buses from Larimer County as well as for people coming from nearby Weld County. This should noticeably increase RTD ridership."

Fully knowing that one person's "bright idea" is another person's "half-baked" idea, I braced myself for criticism and objections, of which there were none. Several people enthusiastically supported the proposal during the public input session of the meeting. It appeared that there was growing consensus among those in attendance.

This proposal was an attempt to create consensus after repeatedly hearing RTD say and print such things as: "there is no consensus from our stakeholders" and "Because there has been no clear consensus from stakeholders on how to move forward." This proposal was made as a private Longmont citizen, not representing any board or commission or committee to which I belong.

Unless you have a better proposal then please ask RTD to consider the proposal above to extend the rail plan eight more miles, bringing rail into Boulder County, as an attempt to turn an apparent lose-lose situation into a partial win-win situation. Please add more advantages to the list as they come to mind. Not one of us is as smart as all of us.

Jeff Ilseman lives in Longmont and is a member of the Longmont Transportation Advisory Board.

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